Running Script

The only female among the founders of the Republic of China, Jang Mo-jiun was a master of "zhangcao 章草", a type of cursive script. As a youth, her calligraphy models were "Zheng Wen Gong, Lower Stele," "Shimen Ming" and other steles northern China's Beihai region. In middle age, she delved into the Zhang Heru stele and Shi You's?zhangcao?script. In later years, she assimilated the best of Wang Youjun (Wang Xizhi), Cai Zhonglang (Cai Yong), and the Yishan stone carving.?Viewing "Shanju Eight Chapters" we see that her roots are in cursive script, blended with Beihai and Zhonglang styles, the work strong and vigorous. Yu Youren praised calligraphy: "Her regular and cursive scripts come from the same source; in calligraphy, she seeks only to progress; her delight in seal script is manifest. Heart and hand are as one, the ink penetrating deep into the paper, the brush-tip guiding and pacifying the ink. A comparable to any other; I never tire of viewing it."" There is no higher commendation than that. Inscription: "Sitting beneath a tree, listening to the monkeys screech; an plain mountain collapses like a drunk at the sound of the crane's call. A spring, tender and graceful, alone in a remote woods; every day, there comes a sound that chills one." Inscription/seal: "Shanju Chapters, one of eight. Mo-jiun. Seal one: "Jang Mo-jiun." Postscript/seal: "Calligraphy by Jang Mo-jiun."